A day after the TNCC general council empowered party leader Sonia Gandhi to appoint a new president for the State unit, sources said the successor of the incumbent, K.S. Alagiri, would be named only after the Indian National Congress president is elected on October 19.
“Only after the election results are announced would the party president appoint the TNCC president,” a party leader in Tamil Nadu said.
Mr. Alagiri was appointed in February 2019, just before the Lok Sabha election, and he has completed three years in the role. “We have given our [national] president the power to appoint the next TNCC president. I don’t know whether the party is going to appoint a new president now or later…or if I am going to be retained,” he said.
While there have been calls for a younger leader to take the party forward, Mr. Alagiri brought significant success to the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, in an alliance with the DMK. The party lost just one parliamentary seat in Theni constituency out of the nine seats allotted to it, and won 18 out of the 25 seats allotted to it in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Notwithstanding the success, TNCC sources said the party high command may decide to appoint a younger president to take it forward in Tamil Nadu.
